Athens , 3 May 2010

Mr. Droutsas: First of all, I would like to welcome you to Greece. It is a great pleasure for me to welcome to Athens the Foreign Minister of Romania, a country with which we have bonds of friendship, alliance, cooperation within the European Union, but also historical ties. Dear friend, Teodor, a warm welcome to Athens.

With regard to the historical ties between us, I would like to stress that Mr. Baconschi’s visit coincides with completion of 130 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries.

Among other things, we discussed the ways and the events with which we intend to celebrate this anniversary. We can already announce that an event will be held in June – among other events: an exhibition of diplomatic and historical documents to be held simultaneously in Athens and Bucharest.

Beyond that, our discussion touched upon a series of bilateral issues of course, our cooperation within the European Union and certain other regional issues, on which we share the same approach. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so I will indicatively mention some of them.

 First of all, Greece and Romania obviously have a strong interest in what is going on in our immediate neighbourhood, the Western Balkans. I had the opportunity to discuss in detail with Mr. Baconschi Greece’s 2014 Agenda initiative regarding the Western Balkans; allow me to say that I am particularly glad that Romania shares our approach.

The Western Balkan countries – as we have repeatedly stressed – need to take all the necessary steps that will bolster their European perspective. At the same time, we want to extend a joint reminder to our partners that – now that the European Union’s institutional issues have been settled thanks to the Lisbon Treaty – we must send another encouraging message to those who wait at the European Union’s doorstep.

We also discussed joint programmes within the framework of the BSEC, where our country will take on a leading role in the field of transport and Romania in the environmental field.

Finally, we spoke about the trilateral cooperation between Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, which assisted Bulgaria’s and Romania’s efforts to join the European Union. Now that this goal has been achieved, we think that we can look into areas for further cooperation between our three countries. I was particularly glad to hear that Romania – through its Foreign Minister – is going to convene the next meeting of our three countries in Bucharest, probably next May.

Dear Teodor, once again a warm welcome to Athens and I look forward to further deepening of our cooperation.

Mr. BACONSCHI: Dear Dimitris, thank you very much for the warm welcome to Athens and the opportunity you gave me to discuss bilateral, European, regional and international issues.

I would like to praise Greece for being the cradle of democracy and for bequeathing the legacy of philosophical thought. It is only natural that EU member states have shown solidarity to Greece, taking into account that we are going through a very serious and difficult economic period, with a negative impact on both Greece and other countries.

This is precisely why we support – and we will help as much as possible – Greece’s efforts to implement the Stability Programme that it has adopted, in order to overcome its difficulties.

On a financial level, Greece is the 5^th most important country in terms of its investments in Romania and we hope that these investments will increase in future, thus deepening our financial cooperation.

Many Greek banks are active on the Romanian financial market and I hope that their strengthening will further contribute to both Romania’s and Greece’s growth.

We also discussed a matter of particular interest to us, Europe's energy security. Once again, we expressed our interest in the Nabucco project for the transfer of energy resources through Romania, without this meaning that it is competitive to the South Stream project, far from it.

On the contrary, these two projects can complement each other, in order to ensure Europe’s energy security and self-sufficiency. This is why I welcome Greece’s decision to complete the project in Constance on the transfer of further energy resources.

We also welcome Greece’s willingness to sign a bilateral educational and cultural agreement, so that the Romanian community living in Greece can be able to learn the Romanian language, both at the level of secondary school and at college level.

As regards our regional cooperation, there is common interest both within the framework of the BSEC and as part of programmes on the Danube and the Southeast European Cooperation Process.

This is precisely why we think that bilateral cooperation at the level of Ministers - a meeting will be held in May in Bucharest – will accentuate our efforts and initiatives so that Western Balkan countries can move forward on their European accession course as soon as possible.

It is particularly important of course for these countries to fulfill their accession criteria, but it is also equally important for them that 2014 can become a target date for all of them, so that they can coordinate their efforts.

I would also like to thank my friend, the Greek Alternate Foreign Minister, for being open to discuss issues of European interest that are of concern to us, issues relating to the Common Agricultural Policy and the Lisbon Treaty, as well as other fields, such as Justice and Home Affairs, so that we can coordinate our efforts and have common positions within the European Union and other.

But also within the framework of NATO – as Allies – and taking into account the new structure of the North-Atlantic Alliance, partnerships are important both at a diplomatic level and at the level of Defense Ministries, so that we can enter a new era of strategic cooperation.

I will of course meet with the Prime Minister, Mr. Papandreou, and I am already looking forward to our future meeting, along with the Bulgarian Foreign Minister in Bucharest.

Thank you once again for the warm welcome.

Journalist: I have a question regarding Skopje, whether you see that progress can be made on the name issue, so that the criteria set 2 years ago at the NATO Summit in Bucharest can be met.

Mr. BACONSCHI: As the Alternate Minister briefed me, negotiations and efforts to resolve this issue are ongoing, always under the auspices and with the assistance of the United Nations. The Greek side has already declared its flexibility on certain issues, it has made certain statements and we are waiting from the other side to come to the dialogue and take the decision to reach a mutually acceptable solution on this issue

Being countries in the same region, having forged bonds and partnerships and knowing the legality of the Greek side’s arguments, we are of course waiting for this issue to be resolved.

Journalist: A clarification regarding the way in which Romania will financially help the Greek side in practice.

Mr. BACONSCHI: We will provide political support, showing complete faith in the Stability and Growth Programme submitted by Greece to the European Union. We will stand by Greece’s side on this effort, always bearing in mind that national economies are interdependent. There is common interest and a common effort, so that Greece can be able to move forward and implement what it has committed to do.